Captions Mean Mobility and Connectivity for People with Hearing Loss
Internet audio and video isn’t the only new trend in online captioning. Now you can have your telephone conversations captioned, making an activity that is challenging for people with hearing loss much easier. If you have high-speed Internet access, there’s no longer any reason to avoid using the telephone. A new free service, Hamilton Web CapTel®, allows individuals with hearing loss to read captions of the other party’s words on their computer screen while at the same time listening to the party over a mobile or landline telephone. Funded under Title IV of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Hamilton Web CapTel requires no special equipment or software to download. Longdistance charges are also eliminated, since the captions are carried through the Internet.
To start the service, fi rst-time Hamilton Web CapTel users must register online at www.hamiltoncaptel.com. Once registered, users simply log in with a secure username and password, after which outgoing calls can be made and incoming calls can be received at any time.
Once a call is initiated, a captioning assistant re-voices the other party’s words which are then translated into captions using advanced voice recognition technology. The captions are transmitted over the Internet, where they are displayed prominently on the CapTel user’s computer screen, making it convenient to save or print the other party’s words. The CapTel user is also able to enlarge the type display as needed.
Hamilton Web CapTel can be accessed in all 50 states and is available in English 24/7. Spanish captioning services are available from 7 a.m. until midnight CST, every day. For more information, visit www.hamiltoncaptel.com or call 888.514.7933.
Similarly, Sprint WebCapTel® allows a person who prefers to use her own voice, but has diffi culty hearing over the telephone, to read word-for-word captions on a computer monitor or a laptop. Captions appear virtually at the same time as the person speaks, allowing participants to enjoy the natural flow of an interactive telephone conversation.
In addition to being able to read captions of the conversation, a Sprint WebCapTel user also has the ability to save the conversation and customize the screen to their preference, including the background, font size and color. When a call is completed, the user can save the captioned conversation for later review, allowing the caller to concentrate on the phone conversation.
The user can listen to the other person speaking through any telephone, including wireless phones, cell phones or landline phones, as long as they have access to a telephone and the Internet. Sprint WebCapTel users do not pay long distance charges for calls that they make through the service. Cell phone users, however, may be charged for the actual use of minutes by their cell phone provider.
For more information about Sprint WebCapTel, go to www.sprintcaptel.com or
www.sprintrelay.com/webcaptel.htm.
